The Contribution of Rural Tourism to Rural Revitalization: A Sustainable Approach to Community Development

ABSTRACT Rural tourism (RT) has become a viable approach to sustainable development that empowers the rural economies and, at the same time, conserves the cultural and environmental resources. Although its significance is increasing, little empirical evidence can be found on how rural tourism development (RTD) leads to rural revitalization (RR) in direct and mediating impacts. The objective of the study is to consider the effects of RTD on RR in economic stability, cultural heritage preservation, environmental sustainability, infrastructure development, conservation activity, and social inclusion, and the environmental awareness and community involvement serve as mediating variables. The quantitative research design was employed, and structured questionnaires were used to gather the data on 465 residents of Wuzhen, a major RT destination in China. Reliability and validity were determined using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS), and then hypothesis testing was done to test both the direct and mediated hypotheses. Findings indicated that RTD has a great impact on economic activities, cultural promotion, infrastructure development, and conservation programs. Besides, environmental consciousness and community engagement are vital mediating factors in the empowerment of sustainable environmental practices and social integration. These results point to RTD as a multidimensional RR driver. The novelty of the study is that it involves the incorporation of the mediating mechanisms into an overall RR framework with massive empirical data. The research comes to the conclusion that RTD could be a new contributor to the long‐term sustainability of rural areas and provides useful information to policymakers and community planners.